One Summer
by Galadriel
Summary: It's the middle of summer vacation, and Harry is taking a break with the Weasleys. Things start to happen and Harry gets caught up in everything. Please read/review it.
1. Of Peace

__

The metal box shone, even in the dark. The cluster of faces glowed in its light, looking at him expectantly. The box itself reflected his brilliant green eyes, jet-black hair, and thin scar, showing, too, the symbols painted on his small, white face. He looked at himself, and he found it looking like a strange mirror. He could see inside himself, inside all of his memories. The box itself seemed to hold his life inside its depths. He gazed entranced, wondering what to do. The box tilted in his hands, and he saw his face reflected in it once more. Slowly, methodically, he traced his sign, the sign that he didn't want, the sign that meant his life, the sign that connected him inexplicably to Voldemort. It was this sign that had caused him to be what he was. As he traced it, memories came back to him. When he looked back up at his reflection, he saw that the symbols had come off. His scar shone brightly, matched perfectly with the etching in the metal. He fell deep into his memory, back to the day that this long trip had begun.

****

It was a lazy day. The water rustled slowly under the hot wooden dock, bees buzzed in the brush, and Harry Potter lay flat on his back, watching the clouds go by. The day had progressed slowly, only interrupted when a loon called sharply, contrasting the restful silence. Heat waves rose from the wood of the old dock that Harry lay upon. His friend Ron was sitting perfectly still, lanky legs relaxed in a half sitting, half kneeling position. A butterfly fluttered lazily over the two boys. 

A blustering breeze came over them, and Harry sat up, pulling his legs to him. Ron looked at him, and broke the silence by saying, "I wonder when Hermione's going to write." 

"Dunno," pondered Harry, not paying much attention to his friend. The vacation was a nice change from being constantly worried about Voldemort and when he would be swooping down upon Harry, Death Eaters crowding behind him. It brought back unpleasant memories of the year before, during the last task of the Triwizard Tournament. Harry thought of Cedric's cold, dead eyes and shuddered, the peace of the day lost. 

"What?" he said to Ron, who had been talking all the while he was thinking, "I missed that last bit." 

"Oh, nothing, just wondering what's happening in the real world." The boys lapsed into a silence. The wind grew even louder and faster, and it blew Harry's untidy hair even further back out of his face. Another figure came out onto the dock, carrying a tray of cheese sandwiches. 

"Hullo. Mum made you some sandwiches," said Ginny, handing Ron the tray and sitting down. The wind blew her hair into her face and out of control. Somehow it made her look frail and white. She gazed out to sea, joining the general mood of the group. 

"The birds are lovely," she ventured, "Watch their wings when they fly." The other two did so. Harry imagined flying himself, the broomstick gone from under him. 

"Have you ever pictured yourself as a bird?" he asked. 

"No, not really. Though we could probably be a bird if we wanted to," said Ron, referring to Animagi. 

"Strange, that," commented Ginny, then she added, "It would be hard to be an Animagus. Deciding what animal you'd want to be. I mean, you could be an eagle, but you'd have to stick to the sky, you could be a cat, but then you'd miss being the other animals." 

"How 'bout a flying squirrel. Get the worst of both types," joked Harry, making the two Weasleys laugh. 

"I s'pose you might," said Ron, seriously, or as seriously as one can be while taking a rather large bite of cheese sandwich, "But really, what animals would you choose?" 

"I don't know," said Ginny, "I wonder if there's a book about all the animals and their advantages for Animagi." 

"Write Hermione. She'd probably know, give you several titles, then bore you to death with a recitation of the whole book. I honestly think that she's read every book that has ever been written," Ron complained. 

"I don't know," said Ginny slyly, "D'you think she's read anything that isn't a classic. How about a thriller novel? That would probably be sufficiently beneath her." Harry gave only a half laugh, because the subject brought up that question again. Where was Hermione? His friends must have picked up his train of thought, because Ron immediately became bemused in solemn thought and Ginny looked thoughtful and worried. She pursed her lips and her forehead wrinkled. Harry shut his eyes and just listened to the wind. 

It seemed to be calling, "Oi! Ron! Letter for you." Harry opened his eyes, looking at the summer house where Fred (or was it George?) stood, waving a letter in his hand. 

"Can't it wait?" yelled Ron back. 

"No, it's from Dumbledore, urgent!" 

"Be right there!" shouted Ron back, a look of panic flitting across his face. He hastily excused himself from the others' company, shoving a sandwich into his mouth as he left. 

"Wonder what that's all about," said Harry, standing up. Ginny stood up too, carrying the platter of sandwiches. 

"Shall we go see?" she said, more of a statement than a question. They meandered up to the little house, walking in to see the Weasleys in a state of disarray. The wind from the door had knocked some papers off of the small counter next to it, and they fluttered to the ground. The rest of the house had small trails of destruction where Ron had run through it, apparently grabbing everything he could. Harry looked askance at Bill, who was standing nearest. 

"Got an urgent letter from Dumbledore and had to go somewhere," he explained. 

"Where?" asked Ginny, rather smoothly, her worry displayed in her shaking hands alone. 

"We don't know. He left quite suddenly," said Mrs. Weasley. She was already beginning to tidy up after Ron, for lack of anything else to do. 

"Did he leave the letter?" asked Bill. 

"I certainly don't know!" said Mrs. Weasley. At that moment Fred and George walked through the front door. 

"Ron needed fast transportation. Sorry Harry, we gave him your Firebolt. Better than all of our brooms put together," said George, rather apologetically. 

"George!" Mrs. Weasley rounded on him as though he had done something terrible. He cowered. "George, how could you do that? You should have asked Harry! And don't insult our belongings!" 

"But Mum, I-" "Don't you 'But Mum' me!" Ginny, Harry, and Bill looked at each other and got out of the room quickly. They wound up in Ron's room, the one that he and Harry had been staying in. 

"What're we going to do?" asked Harry. "I guess we just wait here until Dumbledore calls us," said Bill, "Hope Ron's okay. Hope Mum's okay, for that matter. Hope that when she gets finished with Fred and George that they'll be okay." 

"I'd say that the least likely is the last one," said Ginny, sounding serious. 

"Yeah, probably. Seriously, I mean, Dumbledore wouldn't send Ron somewhere if it weren't safe. At least, he wouldn't send him somewhere without us where it wasn't safe," said Harry. Bill made a sort of half-agreeing sound and Ginny nodded her head. They sat in silence for a minute. Harry thought about his missing friends. Hermione was somewhere, and now Ron had traipsed off to go to that somewhere too, and they didn't even have the decency to be in the same somewhere as each other. 

"Why d'you think they sent him?" asked Bill, "Why Ron and not us? It doesn't make sense. He's much more vulnerable. He doesn't know as many spells and he is more valuable to You-Know-Who because of his connection with you, Harry." 

"I don't think he even knows we're friends," protested Harry, "Because it was just me that saw him in first year, then the next year it was Ginny, not Ron, that I rescued from the Chamber of Secrets, and that was just a shade of Voldemort," Bill and Ginny flinched," and in third year, that wasn't him, that was Wormtail," he continued, forgetting that they didn't know about Wormtail, "and then in fourth year... in fourth year the only other person he saw was Cedric." 

"Who's Wormtail?" Ginny asked. 

"Voldemort's servant, he returned him to power by severing his hand and dumping it into a potion, then stabbing me in the arm and putting my blood in the potion," he said, concentrating hard on Ron's poster of the Chudley Cannons instead of the concerned faces of the Weasleys. 

"Did he really? Are you all right?" asked Ginny. 

"Ginny, it was a month ago, I think I've recovered by now," he said, with the air of one who really didn't want to talk about something. 

"Ginny, I think he means shut up," said Bill, the voice of reason. 

"Oh, sorry, continue," she said. 

"That's all right, I was done anyway." 

"Wormtail could have told him, if Ron was there when you ran into him," said Bill, standing up suddenly, "I'm going to go write Dumbledore and ask him why he sent Ron. The chances of him actually answering are slim, but it's worth a shot." Harry and Ginny nodded. Bill left. 

There was a long and awkward silence, in which Ginny became extremely interested in the wall, and Harry stood up and walked over to examine the poster of the Chudley Cannons even further. One of them was holding up a small mirror and doing her hair, and the rest were making fun of her. Ginny appeared at his side. 

"Interesting picture. I can't see why Ron likes them. They're the worst team in the league," she said. With this all of the people in the posters all over the room turned and looked menacing towards her. One person tried to show off how good they were, and promptly fell off their broom in the middle of an upside down loop. There was yet another uncomfortable pause. 

"There isn't really much to do in here, I'm going downstairs to help Fred and George," said Harry, finally. 

"Okay. I'm staying in here to see if I can find the letter from Dumbledore," said Ginny. 

"Good luck," he said, then exited, going down to where Mrs. Weasley was no longer yelling at Fred and George. He started up the stairs and then paused, thinking better of it. He turned back around, and he slowly walked back down the stairs to outside, where the peace of the day was no more, to the spot where Ron had been sitting when the letter arrived. He sat down, watching a butterfly fly around. The wind that had picked up so suddenly before had died down. It was exactly the same as it had been before, but it was entirely different. Ron had gone, and now Voldemort's battle had come too close to him for comfort. It was all because of him. He felt guilt build up. It was all because he had been too weak to allow Wormtail be killed. It was because he hadn't taken the cup when he had had a chance; it was all because of him. He buried his face in his hands and sat there, in the perfect peace, on the beautiful day. 


	2. Of Dreams

One Summer: Of Dreams  
By Galadriel  
  
The next morning, Harry awoke completely alert. His scar didn't hurt, and nothing was wrong, except for Ron was still gone. He got out of bed, on an impulse, walking outside to find something. He felt the sense that an event was about to happen, and that he was going to do something quite important very soon. At that instant, he looked up into the sky, and for just one second, he thought he saw something that would answer his questions, but the next second, it was entirely gone. The constellations were bright that early morning. He could see the North Star very distinctly, almost as if it were closer and brighter than ever. He gazed at its almost sun-like beauty. Then, he realized that he was supposed to be in the Southern Hemisphere. This must be a dream... and yet, he felt so very awake. What was happening?  
He felt everything around him turn cold. He was standing, in his old pajamas, on top of a large bunch of ice. There was a huge fortress ahead of him, and for one second, he thought that there was something glowing in it, but then his vision was gone as he awoke rather abruptly to the smell of bacon sizzling in the kitchen.  
He remembered the dream as soon as he awoke, but he decided not to mention it to anybody. It was a very odd dream. He went down to breakfast with his stomach rumbling. Mrs. Weasley always cooked the best food he knew of.  
Bill and Mr. Weasley were the only people at the table when he got down. They were sitting quietly, reading the papers. Harry, seeing nothing better to do, picked up a sheet of the Prophet, too, and read up. One article in particular caught his eye.  
"More disappearances!" the headline shouted.  
"As the number of disappearances escalates, the wizarding world is held in suspense remembering the similar occurrences at the beginning of You-Know-Who's reign 25 years ago. Yet, even then, there were not quite so many disappearances as there are today. It is possible, say some experts, that there is a new dark wizard taking over You-Know-Who's position since You-Know-Who himself has not been seen since Harry Potter defeated him. And speaking of the boy that holds the hope of the wizarding world... where is he? Reporters went to his home yesterday to investigate what he thinks of this curious coincidence, only to find that he was not home. Harry's angry aunt threw out our reporters. The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, is holding out that You-Know-Who cannot return, but many wizards and witches are beginning to doubt his judgment in favor of safety. People are beginning to call for safety precautions, and they are turning to Albus Dumbledore for help. Dumbledore, who is famous for defeating Grindelwald in 1949, confirms that You-Know-Who is back. What this means for the wizarding world is not known just yet, but wizards can rest assured that we will be prepared for it this time if the rumors are indeed true."  
Harry put down the newspaper when Mrs. Weasley put a plate of bacon in front of him.  
"What's in the news, Arthur?" she asked.  
"Oh, just the usual. Scandals and things. Not a word from Rita Skeeter, which is unusual," he said.  
"There have been lots of disappearances," Harry said, "Supposedly, they think that I've disappeared, and Voldemort is back. Fudge is still trying to believe that it isn't happening."  
"Typical of him," said Mrs. Weasley, "He does have a talent of ignoring the truth."  
"Who does?" asked Ginny, who had just appeared in the door.  
"Cornelius Fudge," said her mother, handing her a plate of bacon. Ginny nodded and sat down next to Harry. He caught her eye and smiled, and she smiled back, not blushing at all, which surprised Harry slightly. Then again, she was fourteen, he reminded himself; she couldn't be expected to act like an 11-year-old. Mrs. Weasley dished everyone out a piece of toast. The breakfast conversation was mostly about the World Cup. Ireland was on a winning streak again, going for a second cup. Bulgaria had done badly after the first few games, partly because of the loss of their best player, Viktor Krum, who decided to take time off to train to be an Auror.  
After breakfast, Harry, Ginny, Fred, and George went swimming, then they came in for lunch. All morning, though, something was nagging Harry, and he couldn't quite place his finger on it. It was just a little thing on the very back of his mind that wouldn't come forward. He went to Ron's room to think, but his room was just too orange. The Chudley Cannons were still mad at him for Ginny's insults yesterday, so they scowled and made rude hand gestures at him. He left there, trying to find a place of solicitude.  
Some woods surrounded the cottage that they were staying in. Harry tromped into them, savoring the rich scent of greenery. He came to a small trail that ran through them, and he walked, almost automatically, absorbed deeply in his own thoughts. He had plenty of things to think about. First, and foremost, there was the subject of Ron and Hermione. Where were they? Both of his friends had mysteriously disappeared without saying where they were going, and for once, Harry was shunted to the sidelines instead of them. It was a very aggravating experience, because he was so used to being in the middle of everything, and now he was stuck in a quiet place without a clue of what was going on. Then again, maybe he did have a clue. There was the problem of that little thought in the back of his mind. And, last of all, what was happening in the rest of the world. Was Voldemort rising? Why were so many people disappearing?  
Suddenly he stopped. He was in a clearing, with a few trees in the center, and one huge tree in the middle of them. The large tree looked like a good climbing tree. He climbed into its limbs, until he came to a spot where he couldn't go any higher without being afraid that he would fall. He sat down where he was and looked around. He could see the cottage from here, and he could see some mountains far in the distance. The lake shimmered in the sunlight. He leaned back against the tree trunk. This was a place that was free of worry or envy. The view was great, and the tree that he was in was higher than the rest of the trees in the forest. Down in the clearing, a rabbit jumped around, nibbling the grass.  
At that moment, when he was leaning forward to look down, something hit his back, and he almost fell out of the tree. When he looked around, it was Pig, with a letter tied to his ankle.  
"Careful, boy, you almost made me fall," Harry said to him, taking the letter. It was actually just a sheet of parchment wrapped in a scroll.  
"Harry-  
I'm doing fine, just to let you know. Dumbledore has me trying to find some of the lost people. We've got all sorts of clues, but most of them lead to this one big castle. Listen, Dumbledore says that if you want to come help, you can. There'll be a Portkey near the lake somewhere if you want to take it.   
Say hi to my family for me,  
Ron"  
Harry stared at the parchment for a second, and then he pocketed it, figuring that he should show it to Bill or someone and ask their advice.  
"Harry!" a voice called from the clearing below. It was Ginny.  
"What?" he shouted back down.  
"Fred and George want to see if you want to play Quidditch!" she yelled up again.  
"Sure! I'm coming right down!" he called, then he began his descent. Pig flew off to the cottage. When he reached the ground, Ginny was still waiting for him.  
"How'd you find me?" he asked.  
"Oh, easy, I just followed your tracks. It was pretty obvious."  
"Oh." Harry battled in his head whether or not to tell her about the letter. He decided to.  
"Oh, Ron wrote me a letter," he said.  
"Really? What did it say? Why didn't you tell anyone?" she asked.  
"I just got it right now," he said, "You can read it if you want." He took the letter out of his pocket and handed it to her. She read.  
"I don't think you should go," she said, "It could be a trap."  
"No, it couldn't be a trap, they don't know where to find me," he said, "and plus, that's Ron's writing."  
"That's true," she agreed, "Nobody would be able to imitate Ron's writing. It's never the same way twice." She laughed a little, but her face still looked a little worried.  
"Don't worry about it. Ron's perfectly okay," he said, reassuring himself as much as her.  
"Oh, I know, Dumbledore wouldn't try to send Ron anywhere dangerous... I don't think he would, anyway... and Ron can take care of himself, but there's still that little nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I'm forgetting something really important," she said.  
"Really?" he asked, surprised.  
"Yes, why?"  
"I'm having a sort of feeling that I'm forgetting something, too. I don't know what, though. It's been driving me mad," he confided.  
"Oh. Is that why you were up in the tree?" she asked. He looked at her oddly.  
"The two things don't really seem too related, now do they?" he asked, not sure whether she knew she was making absolutely no sense whatsoever.  
"I guess not," she admitted, "But it just seems like when I'm in trouble, it helps me to climb a tree and look at everything from a higher place." Harry was silent for a moment, remembering his similar experience on the tall tree. Perhaps Ginny was right. He told her so. She handed him back his letter.  
"I guess you should go if you really want to, but something just seems wrong about the whole thing," Ginny said, sounding awfully childish. Harry got somewhat impatient with her.  
"You sound like Trelawney: Harry, if you undertake this venture, you will be killed. I can take care of myself," he protested.  
"Then why did you ask me for advice?" she asked heatedly.  
"I didn't!" he exclaimed, then he started off in a different direction.  
"Where are you going?" she called after him.  
"I'm going to go play Quidditch with Fred and George. That's what I came down for. Not to talk with Ron's baby sister!" he yelled back. Immediately he felt ashamed.  
"Ginny!" he called. There was no answer. "Ginny, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...." He trailed off. There was no point apologizing to her if she wasn't going to listen to him. He went to play Quidditch with Fred and George.   
After a grueling practice (he wasn't used to the worse brooms), Harry went to visit Bill, who he felt he could trust.  
"Hey, Bill?" he asked, peeking his head into Bill's room.  
"Yeah, Harry?"   
"Um... I got this letter from Ron, I thought you might want to read it," he said.  
"Oh, sure, thanks," said Bill, taking the parchment from him and looking through it.  
When he was finished, Harry asked, "Well, what should I do?" Bill sat thinking for awhile while Harry waited.  
"I'd go. It seems like Dumbledore might need you. But I don't see why he'd not write to you himself instead of through Ron," Bill advised.  
"Ron was probably just writing a letter, so it was convenient for him to tell Ron," Harry told himself aloud.  
"Yeah, that sounds like him. Listen, Harry, you probably shouldn't tell Mum; she'd pitch a fit and not let you go. I'll tell her where you went after you've left, that sound okay?" asked Bill.  
"Sure, that's fine," said Harry, "I'll just pack a little and leave next time your Mum's on errands."  
"Sounds good," said Bill. As Harry walked out, Bill said, "Oh, Ginny's been really worried about Ron, maybe you should show her the letter." Harry nodded vaguely and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him. He had no intention of talking to Ginny before he left. After all, she would be there when he got back. And maybe when he left, she'd miss him. For some reason, that sounded appealing to Harry.  
****  
That night, Harry couldn't sleep. The nagging feeling was worse than ever. He told himself that he was just being stupid, and the feeling could be ignored out of hand, but that didn't help him any. Finally, he got up to look outside. There was a full moon out, and Harry had the same feeling he'd had in his dream the night before. He had a sudden impulse to go to the giant tree.  
The woods were dark and scary, and Harry felt quite out of place in his pajamas. The brambles caught, branches smacked into his face, and he ran into many spider webs he hadn't encountered earlier. Perhaps, he thought, he just hadn't noticed them earlier, but that didn't help him much now. He wished he could use his wand to light a path through the woods, but fear of the dark was hardly considered an emergency situation in the Ministry.   
Finally he stumbled into the clearing with the tree in it. He wasn't quite sure how he was going to see his way up the tree, or exactly what being in the tree would do for him, but he remembered Ginny's comment about how it helped. He started to climb the tree, feeling rather stupid, and he got all the way to the place that he had climbed to earlier. It was a rather large branch, and he could lean back without any troubles at all.  
He gazed at the full moon, and as he did so a horrible revelation struck him. There would be werewolves out tonight. The woods might be full of them. As if to punctuate this thought, a howl came from the woods around him, and there was a rustling in the bushes. He shut his eyes. Of course, there had to be a wolf in the clearing. All of a sudden, coming out to the tree didn't seem like such a great idea after all.   
He fell asleep to the sound of a pack of wolves howling in the clearing below. He didn't dream.  
  
A/N: Thanks to Lauren Snape, Dog Stars Crush, Velvet Sun, The child of Sin also known as Laura (hehe, cool name), Dravia, sakura, Hazel Harman, and aqua for reviewing! I really appreciate it (hint, hint). J I'm sorry that the chapters are so short, but when they end, they end, and there's nothing I can do about it. These characters have lives of their own, I tell you! Please read/ review (in case you haven't already read it).  



End file.
